Picks & Pecks Editorial: Festival trees are full of holiday spirit

They're still counting the proceeds, but it appears that this week's Festival of Trees raised well more than $75,000 for Vacaville's homeless shelter, Opportunity House. A festival Facebook posting announced that $40,000 was raised during Monday's opening gala, and officials report that Thursday's tree auction raised nearly $37,000. Picks to the hard-working organizers and the supporters of this fund-raiser that keeps the Christmas spirit working in Vacaville year round.

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Another Festival of Trees -- sponsored by the Dixon Kiwanis Club to support children's services and programs in the city -- takes place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at the old Veterans Hall, 231 N. First St. Another worthy cause, and a great way to kick off the holiday season. Picks to its sponsors and supporters.

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More than 40 Vacaville businesses took part in this year's Downtown Business Improvement District's holiday window decorating contest. Congratulations to Mirage Salon and Spa, Jackson Medical Supply, Eagle Eye Engraving and Joe's Creekside Café, which took top honors in their divisions. The real winners, of course, are the customers who will be enjoying the festive decorations for another month. Picks all around.

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He's fought in bigger venues, but Manuel "Tino" Avila is pleased that his 11th professional bout tonight will be on his home turf: the Georgie Duke Sports Center in Vacaville. Avila, 20, may live in Fairfield now, but he started at Georgie Duke a decade ago and still trains under Al LaGardo and the Vacaville Police Athletic League. He turned pro two years ago and holds a 10-0 record. Call this a good luck pick.

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All of those fire drills that Will C. Wood High School students have practiced through the years paid off Thursday morning when a real fire erupted in the boys locker room. As the Vacaville Fire Department raced in to extinguish the blaze, which thankfully was confined to about six lockers, students and staff made their way out to the parking lot without incident. The pick is for everyone who did what they were supposed to do. The peck goes to whoever started the fire.

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Congratulations to the first "graduates" of the Solano County Nurse-Family Partnership, which pairs first-time mothers with public health nurses, whose twice monthly visits provide them with information about pregnancy, childbirth and childcare. Studies have shown such programs have far-ranging benefits, even reducing learning and behavioral problems in children at age 6 and reducing the number of arrests of children at age 15. A pick.

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It would seem the editors of China's official Communist Party newspaper, The People's Daily, temporarily succumbed to the belief that if it's on the Internet, it must be true. How else to explain its website picking up and reporting as fact The Onion's satirical story naming North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as the "Sexiest Man Alive"? The story and accompanying 55-page photo spread was taken off the website after the world started snickering. As a representative of The Reporter, which has seen its share of bone-headed mistakes through the years, The Rooster doesn't dare peck. Besides, the laugh was worth a pick.